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Refinery Status: More Problems At Alon USA Refinery

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES The following table lists unplanned and planned production outages at U.S. refineries as reported by Dow Jones Newswires. The information is compiled from both official and unofficial refining sources and doesn't purport to be a comprehensive list. Another compressor problem occurred at the 68,000 barrel-a-day Alon USA Big Spring, Texas, refinery on July 26, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Flaring was evident for approximately three hours as attempts were made to correct an electrical issue. A compressor was also taken out of service at the refinery on July 16. A fluid catalytic cracker at BP's 437,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Texas City, Tx., was upset on July 26, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The duration of the resulting emissons event was 10 minutes. An issue with a compressor near the fluid catalytic cracking unit at Valero's 145,000 barrel-a-day Benicia, Calif., refinery forced the FCC down on July 26, according to company spokesman Bill Day. "I don't have an estimate on the outage," he said. Planned flaring through July 28 at ExxonMobil's 151,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Torrance, Calif., signals the restart of various units, according to traders doing business with the refinery. Several units, including a coker and hydrotreater, had been under going maintenance since early June. Tesoro's 167,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Martinez, Calif., was running at planned rates on July 25 after the completion of planned maintenance, according to marketers and traders doing business with the company Alkylation and hydrogenation units were upset on July 24, at Flint Hills Resources 303,000 barre-a-day refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The hydrogenation unit was shut down and the alkylation unit was put into circulation mode. A gas treatment unit associated with a sulfur recovery unit tripped off line on July 24 at Sinclair Oil Corp's 75,000 barrel-a-day refnery in Sinclair, Wyoming, according to the U.S. National Response Center. The unit was restarted after relaeasing an excessive amout of hydrogen sulfide. An unplanned flaring event was in effect on July 25, at Chevron's 270,000 barrel-a-day refinery in El Segundo, Calif., according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The event was triggered by a compressor failure which led to an excessive release of sulfur dioxide. The flaring lasted for approximately 45 minutes. A planned flaring event has been scheduled at ExxonMobil's 152,500 barrel-a-day Torrance, Calif., refinery from July 26 through July 28, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. A leaking valve caused flaring and the release of excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide on July 24, at Phillips 66 122,000 barrel-a-day Rodeo, Calif., refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to a California Emergency Management Agency Hazardous Materials Spill Report. Planned maintenance will take place at Husky Energy Inc's 160,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Toledo, Ohio, during the month of September, according to Husky's CFO Alister Cowan. No firm indications were forthcoming regarding specific units involved. Crude runs were cut by almost 30% on July 23 at BP's 338,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Whiting, Indiana, after a small fire and coker outage took place Monday evening, according to traders doing business with the refinery. Planned maintenance at the Husky Energy 155,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Lima, Ohio, was completed on July 20,and operations have returned to planned rates, according to traders doing business with the company An ultraformer, also know as a reformer, will be in the process of restarting at BP's 439,000 barrel-a-day Texas City refinery. The even will run from July 23 through July 26, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. A coker was put back into service on July 17 at Tesoro's 98,000 barrel-a-day Wilmington, California refinery. In addition, a fluid catalytic cracker was also brought back on line the same day, according to marketers and traders doing buisness with the refinery. A fluid catalytic cracker at Sunoco's 334,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Philadelphia was taken out of service on July 23, according to traders doing business with the refinery. An earlier report indicated the unit was put into restart mode on July 20. A planned flaring event will take place on July 24 and July 25, at ExxonMobil's 152,000 barrel-a-day Torrance, Calif., refinery, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Traders indicated the flaring was the result of units being restarted. A fire in a crude unit exchanger took place at Valero's 137,000 barrel-a-day Meraux, Louisiana, refinery on July 22, and forced the shut down of the entire refinery, according to company spokesman Bill Day. It wasn't know how long the refinery woult be out of operation. An equipment malfunction took place on July 20, at ExxonMobil's 238,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Joliet, Illinois, according to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. It wasn't known which unit was affected. Traders appeared confused about the status of a fluid catalytic cracker at Sunoco's 338,000 barrel-a-day Philadelphia refinery, but best indications from traders was the unit came down on July 23. An earlier report had the unit in restart on July 20. In addition, an exchanger on an alkylation unit was taken out of service on July 18. Flint Hills Resources will bring down a light olefins unit at it's Port Arthur, Texas, refinery on July 23, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The unit will be down for maintenance until July 30. A flaring event is scheduled to take place from July 22, through July 25, at Phillips 66 140,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Wilmington, Calif., according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Traders gave firm indications regarding the restart of some refining units. Valero's 147,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, was running at planned rates on July 20 after a couple of days of planned maintenance on a so-called light ends unit, according to company spokesman Bill Day. A flaring event was roported on July 19 at Lyondell Basell's refinery in Houston, Texas. The restart of a new crude unit at Motiva Enterprise's 600,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, will be delayed until early 2013, after being taken out of service on June 24, due to an accidental corrosive incident, according to trading sources doing business with the company. Phillips 66 completed maintenance work on July 19 at it's 200,000 barrel-a-day Ponca City, Oklahoma, refinery on July 19, according to traders doing business with the refinery. Planned maintenance began on July 10. Maintenance work at Phillips 66 140,000 barrel-a-day Wilmington, Calif., refinery was completed on July 19, according to marketers and trades doing business with the company. Planned maintenance began on July 9, resulting in the shut down of the hydrogen plant. A compressor leak was discovered at Flint Hills Resources refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, on July 18, according to the Texas Comission on Environmental Quality. The leak resulted in the take down of a gasoline hydrogenation unit. A compressor at Alon USA Energy's 68,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Big Spring, Texas, was taken out of service on July 16, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The compressor, which lead to a crude unit, is undergoing maintenance. Refining units were back on line July 18, at Citgo's 164,000 barrel-a-day Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, according to traders ding buisness with the refinery. Units were affected by a cooling unit leak and a flash fire late July 16. Petrobras 103,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Pasadena, Texas was in the process of restarting on July 18 after a July 17, shutdown following a power outage caused by adverse weather conditions, according to traders doing business with the refiner A power outage caused by adverse weather conditions forced the temporary shutdown of Petrobras 103,000 barrel-a-day Pasadena, Texas, refinery on July 17, according to local reports. A sulfur recovery unit at Shell's 148,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Anacortes, Washington, was back on line July 17 after being taken out of service on July 8, according to traders doing business in the Pacific Northwest. As a result of the downtime and maintenance on the Olympic Pipeline, spot gasoline differentials were ups stantially over the previous six business days. A sulfur recovery unit was upset early afternoon on July 17 at Valero's 170,000 barrel-a-day McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, according to the Texas Commission on Envoronmental Quality A fluid catalytic cracker was back in service on July 17 at Tesoro's 105,000 barrel-a-day Wilmington, Calif., refinery, according to traders and marketers doing business with the company. The unit was taken of service on June 11. It wasn't know if a delayed coking unit, tken out of service on July 9, was also back in service. Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires For more detailed information, search Dow Jones Newswires using the code N/REF. Operator Refinery Capacity Description Restart (in 000s bbl/day) UNPLANNED CANADA CARIBBEAN EAST COAST MIDWEST Phillips Ponca City, 198.4 Maintenance being done 66 Okla. on unspecified units. CVR Energy Wynnewood, Okla. GULF COAST Exxon Beaumont, 344.5 Unplanned work on unspecified Mobil Texas units. Motiva Port Arthur 600.0 Newly commissioned 325,000-b/d TX CDU was shut by a small fire over the Jun 9-10 weekend. MIDWEST Husky Lima, OH 155.0 Planned maintenace started on July 16. Company said supply will not be impacted. No finishing date given. ROCKIES WEST COAST PLANNED CANADA Husky Saskatchewan Major turnaround to take place Spring Refinery in spring of 2013. Plant-wide 2013 shutdown for inspection and equipment repairs. CARIBBEAN EAST COAST Monroe Trainer, PA 185.0 Delta Airlines subsidiary buys Late Energy refinery in April, plans turn- Summer around through summer. Startup 2012 planned in late summer. Sunoco Philadelphia 335.0 Energy Partners buys Sunoco Inc.; PA deal to close 4Q 2012. Sunoco Marcus Hook 190.0 Marcus Hook shut Dec. 1 ahead of schedule due to poor refining econo- economics. GULF COAST Phillips Belle Chasse 247.0 Refinery up for sale a Nov. 29 66 LA Bloomberg News report said. Valero McKee TX 170.0 Expansion project announced March 2011 to increase crude oil throughput by 25,000 b/d to 195,000 b/d. Valero Norco, LA 185.0 Hydrocracker project will pro- 2013 ceed and be completed in late 2013, the co. said on 7/27/10. Upgrade project to build 2012 a new diesel hydrotreater unit moved from 2010 to 4Q 2012. Valero Port Arthur 325.0 Hydrocracker project will pro- 2012 TX ceed and be completed in late 2012. MIDWEST CVR Wynnewood 54.0 30-40 days maintenance planned Q3 OK in 3rd Q 2013, the co. said on 2013 Nov. 3, 2011. Holly Tulsa, OK 125.0 The entire refinery will be shut Late Frontier while West Plant section under- 2012 goes major turnaround maintenance in late 2012, the Co. said on Aug. 5, 2011. Husky Lima, OH 160.0 15-days of maintenance at diesel 4Q Energy hydrotreater; 29-day at aromatics 2012 unit set for 4Q 2012, the co. on Feb 9. New 20,000-b/d kerosene hydro- 1stH treater will start up in 1st 2013 half 2013, to co. said on Feb 9, 2012. 45-days of major turnaround scheduled in 2014; 70% of units involved. Remaining 30% will under go major turnaround in 2015, the co. said on Feb 9, 2012. Husky Toledo, OH 140.0 Minor turnaround planned in mid- mid-2012 Energy 2012; the partial outage will last about 21 days, the co. said on Feb. 9. Tesoro Mandan, ND 58.0 Total crude-oil processing capa- 2nd Q city to increase by 17% to 68,000 2012 b/d by 2nd quarter 2012. ROCKIES WEST COAST Exxon Torrance 155.0 Several units will be shut for Mobil CA planned maintenance, including hydrogen, coker and pretreater starting June 4. Work will take several weeks to complete, the co. said on June 4. Shell Martinez 156.4 Scheduled work (unspecified) CA is underway, the co. said on Apr 27. Traders said crude and coker unit involved; end date not provided. Tesoro Wilmington 97.0 Planned maintenance underway at CA unspecified units, the co. said on June 6. No restart estimate. Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires